THE CEASEFIRE CAMPAIGN

June 2009 - The Ceasefire Campaign participated in the Global Campaign Against Gun Violence during the week 15 - 21 June. The organisation joined 85 countries worldwide to highlight the devastation caused by guns.  The campaign focused on two issues. One was that of guns and domestic violence with the theme ‘Disarm Domestic Violence’. The other was to highlight the process towards an international legally binding arms trade treaty. Although the majority of the countries at the UN are in favour of such a treaty, a number of countries have not put their weight behind it.  The process towards the finalisation of such a treaty is a long one and the contents are still being debated.

During the week, the Ceasefire Campaign visited a shelter in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal to talk to women there about guns and domestic violence. The organisation was also part of a youth day event held by PACSA in the City Hall.

Later on in the week, Ceasefire screened the IANSA documentary ‘Arms, dealing and national interests’ as well as the Michael Moore documentary, ’Bowling for Columbine’. Both films sparked considerable debate.  

Article By: Keith Campbell

engineeringnews.co.za

5th June 2009

South Africa is not spending enough on defence to maintain its defence industry, warns Denel Group CEO Talib Sadik. Denel is the State-owned defence industrial group.

“South African defence spending is about 1,2% of gross domestic product (GDP). To sustain a defence industry, it needs to be higher.
“The capabilities we have in our national 
industry are not maintainable on our current defence expenditure. 
“Other developing countries have defence expenditure between 1,7% and 2,5% of GDP.”

By comparison, India spends 2,5% of its GDP on defence. Indeed, some countries have even higher levels of defence expenditure. For example, the proportion for Chile is 2,7%, for Egypt 3,4%, and for Turkey 5,3%.

Largely unnoticed in South Africa, other countries have begun to ramp up their 
defence spending and use this to benefit their national defence industries (both public and private sector).

Thus, Brazil is consciously using major new equipment programmes to strengthen and diversify its defence industry, because it is a high-tech sector with many spin-off benefits to the wider economy.

These include a more than €7-billion programme to acquire four French-designed submarines (three to be built in Brazil), a deal which will include the construction of a specialist yard to build the vessels, technology transfer and French assistance in developing the hull of a future Brazilian nuclear-powered submarine; a €1,89-billion deal with Eurocopter to produce 50 examples of the company’s biggest helicopter, the EC725 Super Cougar, for all three of the Brazilian Armed Forces at the Helibras plant, in Brazil; and, of course, the more than €1-billion KC-390 military tanker/transport programme of national aircraft manufacturer Embraer.

Likewise, Australia will use its rising defence budget to further develop its local industry. 
In its 2009 Defence White Paper, published only a few weeks ago, the Australian government notes that a “significant proportion of the funding allocated to Defence for the procurement of goods and services is likely to go to locally based companies, which are a key element of the Australian industrial landscape”.
“Growing the capacity and competitiveness of the local defence industry is a policy 
objective of government and will require 
ongoing investment in skills development, workforce growth and improved productivity.”

Note that neither Australia nor Brazil faces any immediate external threat.

“Australia has been creating an environment in which international players come into their national industry and invest, and so 
create a sustainable industry,” highlights Sadik.

“South Africa should have the same attitude and welcome foreign investment. Defence is a global industry and the global trend is consolidation. 
“The customer base is quite concentrated 
– it is composed of governments. There is fierce competition for a limited number of programmes. 
“Regarding missiles, for example, Europe and the US have already consolidated their missiles businesses.”

Meanwhile, Denel continues to make progress with its turnaround strategy. 
This year, the group has an order book of R16 048-million, including confirmed contracts – up substantially from R3 749-million 
in 2006. Revenues for 2009 stand at R5 410-
million, in comparison with R2 731-million in 2006.

Efficiency has also improved significantly, 
up from R353 293 for every employee in 2006 to R746 460 for every employee this year, and Denel wants to increase this. 
The provisions for contract losses and 
impairments have dropped from R551,8-million, in 2006, to R55,9-million this year. Regarding cash flow (before financing), in 2006, this involved an ouflow of R1 053-million, 
while this year sees an inflow of R221-million.
In 2005, the group experienced bottom-line losses of R1 560,7-million, declining to R1 363,4-million in 2006, further reducing to R549,1-million in 2007 and R347,2-million in 2008. The figure for 2009 will be released by this coming August.

Of the group’s four subsidiaries in which it has a strategic equity partner – Turbomeca Africa (Denel’s share is 49%), Denel Saab Aerostructures (80% Denel), Carl Zeiss Optronics (30% Denel), and Rheinmetall Denel Munitions (49% Denel) – three are already turning around. 
Carl Zeiss Optronics has experienced a 100% increase in revenues in two years. 
(In subsidiaries in which Denel now has a minority shareholding, the group has a 
golden share to protect South African intellectual property.) 
Denel is also in a “quite advanced” stage of negotiations with a major international company to become a strategic equity partner in the group’s missiles business.

Edited by: Martin Zhuwakinyu

2009-06-15

Ambassador U. Joy Ogwu of Nigeria

On Friday 12 June, Jamaica and Nigeria became the 97th and 98th signatories of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, just six months after the international treaty opened for signature. Recent signatures and ratifications of the treaty in diverse regions show that consensus around a world free of cluster bombs is growing.Ambassadors U. Joy Ogwu of Nigeria and Raymond Wolfe of Jamaica signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on behalf of their governments on Friday at the United Nations in New York.

“Having Nigeria and Jamaica among the signatories is very encouraging,” said Thomas Nash, coordinator of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC). “Now we need them to make their signatures count by ratifying swiftly and advocating in favour of the treaty in their respective regions. We also urge Nigeria, as a stockpiler, to start the process to destroy its cluster munitions as soon as possible.”

As one of the few countries in Africa to have used the weapon in the past, Nigeria’s signature bears particular significance and should influence the other countries in the region that have not joined the treaty. Earlier this month, neighbouring Niger followed up on its signature by ratifying the Convention.

Eight countries have ratified the treaty and 22 more are needed for it to enter into force and become legally binding. As leaders in the Oslo Process to ban cluster bombs, the CMC is calling on African nations to ratify the treaty swiftly in order to trigger entry into force.

“We worked really hard with different Ministries to achieve this,” said Mimidoo Achakpa of IANSA Women Network, CMC member in Nigeria. “But this is only the first step in the right direction as Nigeria still has more hurdles to pass: ratification, domestic law, stockpile destruction. Civil society will not rest until these goals are reached”.

Jamaica is the first country in the Caribbean to sign the treaty. The CMC urges Jamaica as a key regional leader to convince its fellow Caribbean nations to join the treaty. Although no Caribbean state stockpiles cluster munitions, the use of the weapon by the United States in Grenada in 1982 shows that no region of the world is immune to its indiscriminate effects. Today Caribbean states have an opportunity to play an important role in bringing about change in international law by signing and ratifying this crucial treaty.

Ambassador Raymond Wolfe of Jamaica

On 25 and 26 June countries that have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions have been invited to Berlin by the German government to discuss stockpile destruction. This is the first time all signatory countries are invited to discuss the Convention since the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008. The Cluster Munition Coalition encourages Jamaica and Nigeria to take part in this important step towards making the treaty a reality on the ground.